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As a German I heavily sympathise with Obama and, at least to some amount, with the democrats. I think they are very rational and slighty left wing - most Germans have very left wing claims to parties although they don't vote for left wing parties to the same amount - but still very moderate.
The Republicans - and a vast amount of their voters - are quite suspective to me and most people I know. They are heavily irrational, make politics against their own nation in foreign policy - as theirs leads to conflicts either way without ever accomplishing anything good with that - and against the vast majority of their own population and voters. They're the worst mix imaginable - irrational, hateful, way too economic liberal without ever learning from history, they only make politics for richs and huge concerns...
There are only two kinds of people I could imagine voting for Republicans: Rich egomaniacs and poorly educated people. Ok, some of them are not poorly educated but still stupid.
I guess it's safe to say that a large majority of Germans (minus the 4% who still say they'ld vote for FDP) thinks that the world and especially the USA itself would greatly benefit if Obama had the national support inside the US to realise his political aims.
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I view US politics as pretty baffling, I don't have an understanding or appreciation for most right-wing views. My American friends don't seem to understand it either. It seems that for a non-republican president to be elected, a republican president has to screw up royally (W Bush) or commit a crime (Nixon).
I've received apologies from american friends about the 2004 election. The thing that I don't understand is why the right-wing seems to dominate US politics despite the left having common-sense on it's side.
I also don't understand why poor people tend to vote republican. I think that it's partially a wish-type vote. If I vote for these cold rich businessmen who care little about social problems that could help me, maybe I'll be rich! Or something like that. Maybe its a racist or religious thing, I don't know.
I think that in general the left is too cynical about elections, and stay home. That's gotta be it.
I don't understand.
A hypocritical ignorant former beauty queen who won't (or can't read) is probably going to be the presidential nominee in 2012. And she might even win.
I don't understand.
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I don't wanna go into depth about what I think about the American politics (I have a rather strong opinion on this), but I don't get how Americans keep seeing things in as black and white as they often times do.
Why for example, did/do they think that a social health care system equals communism in any way? I mean, by any definition, that is just plain idiotic and makes no sense at all. Where is the camaraderie of the American people that they arguably have in overly large quantities if it comes to other things?
Also on a side note, I would like to say that I think that the US was not ready to have Obama as president. I don't think, he will get re-elected, and I think in the long-term that will be a loss for all people in the U.S.
Especially if some ....well, "special" women like Sarah Palin should actually make it into the white house, then it's good night USA
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On November 05 2010 00:18 Vasili wrote:
Oooo and recently our media labelled you as intolerant of difference when the Mosque construction near ground zero was "slammed" as a hit the the American nation and 'letting the terrorists win'. It's sad how our media focused on that one point but I know for a fact that theres so many more diverse opinion on the subject. I did my research on American nationality construction through media discourse on war reporting, so I had to dig through articles from Fox news and the like and I found that much of the reporting focused on fighting back at intolerance. It looks like what we think of your politics doesn't really matter because it's misrepresented in our own media anyways. I wouldn't be to hung up at finding subjective interpretations of US politics from the outside because we have all been fed a bunch of assumptions about the U.S to begin with.. I guess the only real way to know is to actually live in America and take a neutral stance on all the information that you find.
Although, I'll say that I believe all politicians (left or right) are a pack of liars who can't give truthful information because it might damage their image.
The whole problem from the Mosque near ground zero is more of a "you have the right to do it, we can't stop you, but would you please consider, as that is a bit of a dick move?" Meanwhile, a Greek Orthodox Church that was completely destroyed on September 11th hasn't been able to get permission to begin reconstruction. Some also cite what happened when the Catholic Church wanted to build a coven near the Auschwitz Death Camp, and changed their mind when they realized it would upset the public.
+ Show Spoiler + took the test, they should really put a 'neutral' option on these questions
Economic Left/Right: 3.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.87
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The identification argument is not valid as ski masks (hell, or any other type of mask) are not banned.
Disagreeing is no trolling.
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On November 04 2010 06:32 svi wrote:
a bunch of idiots who get together and argue, sort of like a rehearsed play.
then after they pretend argue, they get together and think of ways to steal money.
then they spend that money on hookers.
Beautiful. It's the very same in Germany.
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On November 05 2010 00:34 Iodem wrote:Show nested quote +On November 05 2010 00:18 Vasili wrote:
Oooo and recently our media labelled you as intolerant of difference when the Mosque construction near ground zero was "slammed" as a hit the the American nation and 'letting the terrorists win'. It's sad how our media focused on that one point but I know for a fact that theres so many more diverse opinion on the subject. I did my research on American nationality construction through media discourse on war reporting, so I had to dig through articles from Fox news and the like and I found that much of the reporting focused on fighting back at intolerance. It looks like what we think of your politics doesn't really matter because it's misrepresented in our own media anyways. I wouldn't be to hung up at finding subjective interpretations of US politics from the outside because we have all been fed a bunch of assumptions about the U.S to begin with.. I guess the only real way to know is to actually live in America and take a neutral stance on all the information that you find.
Although, I'll say that I believe all politicians (left or right) are a pack of liars who can't give truthful information because it might damage their image. The whole problem from the Mosque near ground zero is more of a "you have the right to do it, we can't stop you, but would you please consider, as that is a bit of a dick move?" Meanwhile, a Greek Orthodox Church that was completely destroyed on September 11th hasn't been able to get permission to begin reconstruction. Some also cite what happened when the Catholic Church wanted to build a coven near the Auschwitz Death Camp, and changed their mind when they realized it would upset the public. + Show Spoiler + took the test, they should really put a 'neutral' option on these questions
Economic Left/Right: 3.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.87
The Greek Orthodox church wasn't rebuilt because of business setbacks not because of intolerance. The parties involved kept changing the conditions for its construction to the point where negotiations wen't nowhere. But yes I can see where your coming from. I'm just saying that our media portrayed only one view, that America is intolerant of difference. Although I don't really believe that; It's what papers like the Herald Sun and The Age (Australian papers) focused on.
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On November 04 2010 08:08 Krigwin wrote:
Outside of the US everyone thinks the Democrats have the right idea and a lot of the Republicans/Tea Party are batshit crazy or even outright evil by other countries' standards. Meanwhile inside the US the Democrats have been painted as some kind of evil European Socialist party and ends up losing tons of seats to said Republicans. Then in this thread outsiders are claimed to be "US bashing" and "biased" or "misinformed".
So what's wrong with this picture?
I'd like to add another observation to my list of observations.
Thread is titled "How do foreigners view US politics?". Over half the posts in the thread end up being from Americans, many of them saying the outsiders are "liberal biased" or getting their information from a "liberal biased" source or "European elitists" or even mudslinging rhetoric completely unrelated to the topic at all like "(European country or even the whole of Europe, because "Europe" is apparently a country now in the eyes of some Americans) is just as bad as the US in (insert area here)!". How does a thread created to get posts from foreigners turn into a thread filled with Americans bashing foreigners?
So what's wrong with this picture?
On November 04 2010 18:44 jalstar wrote:
I find it hilarious that a small but vocal minority of Americans care about what Europeans think about us. I don't think that happens in other countries but I could be wrong, Europhilia is just really strong among the NYT-Starbucks-hipster crowd.
What the hell are you talking about? Just about all of the posts in this thread from Americans directed at Europeans are conservatives defending the US, not the "NYT-Starbucks-hipster crowd". The "small but vocal minority" of Americans you're talking about, judging by this thread, are all conservatives and many even Republicans. Take your blind nationalism and uninformed sniping elsewhere.
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I see democrats, and to some extent Obama himself, as a decent group of politicians with some respectable ideas but that tend to be extremely incompetent when it comes to get their message across or actually solving problems.
Republicans just strike me as an amalgamation of the rich, religious, racists and otherwise conservative people who use fear tactics to keep a large portion of the American population voting for them, but they are a lot better at what they do than democrats.
I'm not into the American bashing wave so popular in some parts of the world, but to be honest the politics of the US seem more like those of an underdeveloped nation than those of the richest nation on Earth.
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My main gripe with US politics is their bizarre two-party system. Most EU countries have a wide spectrum of parties and many governments are coalitions made of several parties. This helps to maintain shades of gray and it removes the sharpest edges of the more extreme views of the individual parties as no single party will have a majority and they all have to compromise.
The main culprit is of course the voting system. Scoring 51%:49% in a state should not make your party the sole representation for that state. Any new party will never be able to get into a position of power, since getting 2nd place (or even 3rd place) in every state means that you quite literally have nothing to say. Even if the system was changed today, it may many years for peoples natural connection to the 2 main parties to fade and for newer parties with fresh ideas to be able to get in the spotlight.
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well I suppose in Germany Republicans are mostly seen as rednecks, religious fanatics and racists. Democrats, even tho still more to the right then most of our paties, tend to be more accepted here.
What bugs me most about US politics is that if you are not rich you will never make it in politics which generates politician families or often leaves a sour taste when former CEOs become high ranking goverment officials. Also very strange is the american election system which has quite a few holes in it and in the end does not reflect the opinion given in the election to the correct degree.
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Besides sarah palin being a milf, we are all pro-democrats as far as I know. When obama was chosen president, it was like we won something.
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i like US people here on TL, so i won't start to describe everything i hate about US politics, other people in this thread mention it = a joke 
but i will say, that the healthcare Obama is trying to get in = SAY YES
Free Healthcare (paid with taxes ofc) is one of the best thing in the world
oh and if US vote Palin as president one day, im gonna find the nearest bunker asap and stay there, that woman scares me, for the love of god don't put her into the white house
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United States5162 Posts
On November 05 2010 01:12 Blobskillz wrote:
well I suppose in Germany Republicans are mostly seen as rednecks, religious fanatics and racists. Democrats, even tho still more to the right then most of our paties, tend to be more accepted here.
What bugs me most about US politics is that if you are not rich you will never make it in politics which generates politician families or often leaves a sour taste when former CEOs become high ranking goverment officials. Also very strange is the american election system which has quite a few holes in it and in the end does not reflect the opinion given in the election to the correct degree.
Unfortunately, this post is right on. It's sad that it takes so much money to run in an election because of how long and drawn out the whole process is. It'd also be nice to get rid of the whole electoral college system which only gets used for the Presidential Election.
Another thing I'll add is that a lot of people, including myself, fall on the conservative side of economics because our Federal Govt has shown time and again that they are completely inept at running things. I would support health care and other social programs if I didn't know they would be completely run into the ground.
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On November 05 2010 00:27 Zorkmid wrote:I also don't understand why poor people tend to vote republican. I think that it's partially a wish-type vote. If I vote for these cold rich businessmen who care little about social problems that could help me, maybe I'll be rich! Or something like that. Maybe its a racist or religious thing, I don't know.
It's weird that you think that. Inform yourself:
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2006/pages/results/states/US/H/00/epolls.0.htm
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls/#val=USP00p1
Obviously those two elections were democratic-party-favored in general but the trend has held true for decades now. The lower your income the more likely you are to vote democrat, and the higher the more likely you are to vote republican.
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Even our professors make fun of the political situation in the States
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but i will say, that the healthcare Obama is trying to get in = SAY YES
Free Healthcare (paid with taxes ofc) is one of the best thing in the world
Yeah, I agree. USA is alone amongst the developed countries without universal health care.
I guess us nordic countries are fortunate to have such a good welfare system.
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Haha. This video seems to be on the spot.
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On November 05 2010 01:23 trainRiderJ wrote:Show nested quote +On November 05 2010 00:27 Zorkmid wrote:I also don't understand why poor people tend to vote republican. I think that it's partially a wish-type vote. If I vote for these cold rich businessmen who care little about social problems that could help me, maybe I'll be rich! Or something like that. Maybe its a racist or religious thing, I don't know. It's weird that you think that. Inform yourself: http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2006/pages/results/states/US/H/00/epolls.0.htmhttp://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls/#val=USP00p1Obviously those two elections were democratic-party-favored in general but the trend has held true for decades now. The lower your income the more likely you are to vote democrat, and the higher the more likely you are to vote republican.
Touche, but do these polls exclude hillbillies?
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EPT
